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For months now I have been harboring a craving for broccoli rabe (or "broccoli raab," if you prefer, but I can't quite warm to that spelling -- it looks too much like it ought to be the name of the favorite dish of mercenaries in the Boer Wars), despite the fact that I couldn't actually remember just what the stuff tasted like. I just knew that I wanted some. Cruelly, none of my local shopping haunts were stocking it, and so I went on wanting it, not knowing why.
This weekend, after I had pretty much given up on it, I found a bunch. It was indeed delicious, like a tender and savory cross between spinach and broccoli, and I wish I'd bought three bunches instead of one, though even one went pretty far. Half was my lunch today, and the other half went into an arborio rice dish with lemon.
We had company for dinner last night, which motivated me to bake a loaf of kalamata olive bread. And since we'd be suffering a hot stove anyhow, I also made some basil baked tomatoes to eat with it. It is stretching things to call instructions for baked tomatoes a "recipe," but it is worth writing up and pursuing. You can top a tomato you are going to bake with almost anything that strikes your fancy, as long as there is some olive oil involved. You can even use nothing but olive oil and salt, and it will taste divinely of pure concentrated tomato, but this basil and garlic combination is a particular favorite.
1. Take some fresh garlic cloves (four, perhaps) and some fresh basil (a fistful, say) and chop them up together. Then puree them and some olive oil, enough to make it slushy. Add a tablespoon or two of bread crumbs and some salt and pepper.
2. Take some nice, beefy tomatoes, like Early Girls, and cut them in half. Scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon and put the halves, cut side up, in an oiled baking dish.
3. Divide the topping among the tomatoes, and bake for about half an hour at 400° F, until the tomatoes are collapsing. Tip the whole mess into a bowl and break it up a little. Let it cool to room temperature, especially in this weather, and eat it with your nice bread.
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